J.W.+Eisiminger

The spring of 1932 brought a sudden string of criminal abortion deaths to Oklahoma City, attributed to two physicians in the University of Oklahoma area -- John W. Eisiminger and Richard E. Thacker. Marie Epperson, just 19 years old, was an earlier victim, who had died in late February of 1929.

In mid-April of 1932, Mrs. Isobel F. Ferguson died of suspected abortion complications. Both Elsiminger and Thacker were suspected in the case. The very next day, 1932, Ruth Hall died of suspected abortion complications. Once again, Elsiminger and Thacker were suspects. Eisiminger was an osteopath in Oklahoma City. He alone was the suspect in the abortion death of Virginia Lee Wyckoff, a 21-year-old student at the University of Oklahoma. Virginia died in late April, 1932. Elsiminger was charged with murder in her death.

That same day, Lennis May Roach died of suspected abortion complications. Both Elsiminger and Thacker were suspected in the case. The next day, another young woman died of abortion complications -- 17-year-old Nancy Joe Lee, a University of Oklahoma co-ed who was secretly married to a university football player. Thacker, a surgeon, was charged with the death. Thacker had also been charged with murder in the abortion death of Robbie Lou Thompson, age 21, the previous week. The total number of deaths attributed to Thacker and Elsiminger was eight.

Geraldine Easley, age 19, admitted before her death in mid-March, 1932, that she had undergone a criminal abortion. Since Eisiminger and Thacker had been responsible for a string of other criminal abortion deaths in the Oklahoma City area, suspicion in Geraldine's death naturally leaned toward the two known quack abortionists

He was born April 13, 1882 in Missouri. His wife, Marie, reportedly paid an $8,000 bribe to the governor to gain clemency for her husband.

A history of the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association noted that at the Association's November 29, 1906 meeting in Oklahoma City, Eisiminger was present and signed the constitution of a new Association to be formed when Oklahoma and Indian Territories were granted statehood as Oklahoma.

 Sources:
 * "Osteopath Held in Oklahoma Deaths," //Appleton (WI) Post Crescent//, Apr. 29, 1932
 * "Ex-Gov. Phillips Freed by Jury in Bribe Trial," //Chicago Tribune//, Oct. 15, 1944
 * Fitzgerald v State; 1947 OK CR 152188 P.2d 396; 85 Okl.Cr. 376



